My session sept'14

The Pundits’ Session

By Arnab AuddySeptember 2014

Just don’t google. No other rules.

Let us begin

1. This is Arnob Shayan Chowdhuri, an Indie rock musician from Bangladesh. In 2006, he released an album that has very recently lent its name to something special. What?

Answer

#Hok Kolorob

2. In 1977, a journalist called Michael Paterniti drove across America with scientist Thomas Harvey for company. He later recorded his experiences during the journey in ‘Driving Mr. Albert’. Who/ What else had accompanied these two people?

Answer

Albert Einstein’s brain

3. Voting is a fundamental right in most countries. However there are 3 countries where voting is mandatory for all adults. You can land up in jail for not voting.

Name them.

Answer

Fiji, Chile and Egypt

4. XY is a crowdfunding site that your organization can use to fundraise. When the campaign “Y’s” (reaches the goal) then everybody’s cards are charged and you’ll get the funds. Plus, you get each donor’s name, email, and contribution amount and contribution date.

Answer

CrowdTilt

5. When Prithviraj Chauhan lost to Mohd. Ghori, he had fled from the battlefield to a dense forest. It is said that he met X here. X was incredibly tall and had a scar in his forehead. A physician himself, Chauhan offered to help this man. To this, X replied that this wound had been caused by a curse and could never be cured. Prithviraj recognised him immediately.

Can you?

Answer

Ashwatthama

6. Because his cameos were much anticipated and ruined the mood he was trying to create in his films, Hitchcock usually appeared quite early in his films, mostly in the first 30 minutes. In an episode of ‘Koffee with Karan’ , Mahesh Bhatt claimed that this was what had led his production house to do something similar in some of their films. What?

Answer

Emraan Hashmi’s kiss happened early

7. X was an electrical engineer by profession. In 1920, he started a company, which has set the standards in conducting surveys ever since. The company is also known by the same name. Identify X. Full name required.

Answer

Arthur Charles Nielsen(AC Nielsen)

8. In 1858, a British lieutenant named Joseph Sherer, while posted in Silchar, Assam, found the local soldiers engaged in a game locally called ‘Sagol Kangjei’. He liked the game and introduced it to the rest of his men. This, is said to be the story behind the birth of the game on an international scale. Which game?

Answer

Polo

9. This is basically a custom borrowed into English culture from French etiquette. The French name literally means ‘Please contact if you accept this invite’.

It has from then on been used in invitation cards all over the world. Which custom are we talking about?

Full name reqd.

Answer

RSVPRespondez Sil Vous Plait

(and not Rosogolla Sandesh Var Pet, as Syata Bose said)

10. This is about someone called Tardar Sauce. She has shot into fame in the internet world in late 2012. She featured on the Wall Street Journal in July 2013 and on the New York Magazine in September 2013. She went on to receive a Lifetime Achievement award at Friskies 2013. “Contrary to popular perception, she is actually quite pleasant to people”, claims Tabatha Bundesez, who has known her closely for a long time.

How do we know her better?

Answer

Grumpy Cat

11. Which famous piece of architecture is locally known as the ‘coathanger’?

Answer

Sydney Harbour Bridge

12.The first meeting was held from 1st-8th August, 1907. The location was Brownsea Island, off the south of England. Such a remote location was chosen to avoid the press, as the organiser was really famous.

There were 20 participants. The proceedings started with a blow

of the ‘kudu’ horn (made of an antelope’s antlers) that the organiser had.

Whose first meeting?

Answer

Boy Scouts

13. Identify this Egyptian goddess of magic and life

Answer

ISIS

14. The Paris Peace talks, held in 1973, sought to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam war. This was between US President Lyndon Johnson and political representatives from North and South Vietnam. However, it was delayed a number of times due to dispute over an unexpected issue.

What?

Answer

The Shape of the Table.North Vietnam wanted a circular table, while South Vietnam wanted it to be a rectangle.

15. Identify the song described here.

Answer

16. This is a still from the film ‘Major Chandrakanth’ (1966) made by K. Balachander. The man in the middle played the title role. The man on the left is A.V.M. Rajan, who played the major’s son, a negative character.

How was his character’s name re-used a few years later?

Answer

The actor Shivaji Rao was given the name ‘Rajinikanth’ by K. Balachander after the

character’s name.

17. Julius _________ founded this company in Switzerland in 1872. It was famous for producing a sauce that tasted like soy sauce without containing soy. It is known in the Baltic states for instant soups and in the US for its bouillon cubes. Indians know it for something invented in Japan by Momofuku Ando in 1958.

Which company?

Answer

Maggi

18. One of the major scandals of post independent India centred around the eminent Indian politician X and the lady Y. Though neither X nor Y admitted it in public, their relationship was an open secret. X’s opposition gave this a creative touch in their election campaign----

Break open Ram’s heart, You will find Sita. Break open X’s heart, You will find Y

Id X and Y.

Answer

X- Jawaharlal NehruY- Lady Mountbatten

19. What unique feat have Kevin Gillespie, Dave Kitson and Andreas Johannson achieved in The English Premier League?

Answer

They have been sent off without touching the ball. An equivalent to the diamond duck

of cricket.

20.While it’s not very clear why this is done anti-clockwise, the following facts have been suggested as possible reasons:

• Blood circulates anticlockwise• The Earth revolves around the sun

anticlockwise• The Earth rotates on its axis

anticlockwise• Electrons revolve around nucleus

anticlockwise

What?

Answer

Why Muslims go around the holy shrine at Mecca anticlockwise

21. In 1965 band member Barrett created the name XY on the spur of the moment when he discovered that another band, also called the Tea Set, were to perform at one of their gigs. The name is derived from the given names of two blues musicians whose Piedmont blues records Barrett had in his collection, X Anderson and Y Council.

Which band?

Answer

Pink Floyd

22. Ashford vs. Thornton was an English murder case in 1818, where the accused (Thornton) was found not guilty in his trial, but had his acquittal appealed in court by the victim’s family. He escaped being tried on appeal by invoking an ancient legal procedure, that had somehow had not been repealed yet. Soon after, this procedure was abolished. This case is held to be the inspiration for the climax of Ivanhoe.

What was the procedure in question?

Answer

Trial by Combat

23. The Maltese Falcon (1941) was a movie on a San Francisco detective and his dealings with three adventures. It was nominated for 3 Academy Awards. This was the debut film of actor Sydney Greenstreet , who played the role of Kasper Gutman (pic. Next slide).

What is important about this role in recent history?

Answer

It inspired physicist Robert Serber to call the second atom bomb by the name ‘Fat Man’

24. This is the newly relaunched ‘The Lalit Great Eastern’. Incidentally, the present General Manager of this hotel happens to be the great grandson of someone we have known since our childhood. For very different reasons.

Answer

K.C. Nag

25. Connect:

Answer

George Bailey.The character on the left was called George

Bailey (from It’s a Wonderful Life)

26. Identify this comedy show aired on BBC in 1989. This is based on real-life incidents of World War I.

Answer

Blackadder Goes Forth

27. In 1865, after the American Civil War, most soldiers became addicted to morphine. Looking to find a remedy to this, chemist William Pemberton made a mixture made of Bordeaux wine, cocaine, caffeine, and Damiana (a Texus drug found to increase libido).

However, medicinal drugs had to be alcohol-free. What did Pemberton come up with?

Answer

28. November Rain, by Guns N Roses is one of the most celebrated English rock songs ever. The official youtube video of this song shows the story of the frontman’s marriage and finally ends on a sad note with his wife’s death.

Which short story is this video based

on?

Answer

‘Without You’ by Del James

29. While shooting the film X, director Y did not reveal the final twist to any of his cast members. When it was finally revealed, actor Michael McManus, who played a major role, lost his temper and walked out of the sets.

This final twist had completely

undone his character, and had reduced it to a mere red herring. The supporting character had actually come out to be the real hero.

Give me X and Y

Answer

X- The Usual SuspectsY- Bryan Singer

30. Just FITB

Answer

31. Ad for?

Answer

32. This shade of colour is named after him, because, in the 1940s, he observed that ships with this colour seemed to be less obviously seen during twilight hours.

(later experiments showed this to be wrong, and if anything, the colours could make things more obvious)

Who?

Answer

Lord MountbattenThe colour is called Mountbatten pink

33. The Oxford English Dictionary cites Ælfric's tenth-century glossary, in which it is given the meaning "precipice", or stone, thus the Stanheng "not far from Salisbury" recorded by eleventh-century writers are "supported stones". Christopher Chippendale gives the derivation of the name as coming from the Old English words meaning "stone", and either hencg meaning "hinge" or hen(c)en meaning "hang" or "gallows" or "instrument of torture". Medieval gallows consisted of two uprights with a lintel joining them, rather than the inverted L-shape more familiar today.

If this was the answer, what is the question? Very specific answer required

Answer

34. Google Doodle for?

Answer

150th birth anniversary of John Wisden

35. Looking for Richard is a 1996 documentary based on William Shakespeare’s Richard III and a broader examination of Shakespeare’s relevance in popular culture.

Whose debut directorial venture was this?

Answer

Short Visual Connect:•Identify each sportsperson and connect them with their special ability.

•There are five slides. •Identification marks: +10,+10,+10,+10,0•+10 for a full house•Connect marks indicated on each slide

Answer

1. Kobe Bryant2. Ronnie O’ Sullivan3. Paolo Maldini4. Jonny Wilkinson5. God

Connect: They are all ambidexterous

Bibliography Round• Nine Slides

• Each slide gives the inspiration behind a book/ literary character• Guess the book and the author

• +10 for each (no half points)• +10 for a full house

#1 Some locations and characters were inspired by the author’s childhood in Birmingham, where he first lived near Sarehole Mill, and later near Edgbaston Reservoir. There are also hints of the Black Country, which is within easy reach of north west Edgbaston. Some parts have been inspired by the Industrial Revolution in England and the Iron Age and Roman mineral workings and remains which the author saw in 1929. Other influences include his experiences in World War I and II. The entire story was finished before 1945.

#2 The author was working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International at that time. One day she was held up for four hours in a train from Manchester to London in 1990. She wondered how she could escape. It was here that the story was first conceived.

#3 The inspiration for the book, he explains, was from an incident in Los Angeles in 1949, during the period of intense censorship and blacklisting known today as McCarthyism. He and a friend were walking the streets of L.A. when a police officer stopped them and asked them what they were doing. The police officer had no reason to do so, and this angered the author.The incident was the perfect example of the paranoia and fear that overwhelmed the American society at that time.

#4 "I was flipping through images of reality television, there were these young people competing for a million dollars ... and I saw images of the Iraq War," the author said in a video from the publisher, Scholastic. "Two things began to sort of fuse together in a very unsettling way, and there is really the moment when I got the idea for the story."

#5 Bell was a great-grandson of Benjamin Bell, a forensic surgeon. In his instruction, Joseph Bell emphasized the importance of close observation in making a diagnosis. . These skills caused him to be considered a pioneer in forensic science (forensic pathology in particular) at a time when science was not yet widely used in criminal investigations. Bell studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School and received an MD in 1859.

The author served as his clerk at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and later based the character on him. Bell was aware of this and took pride in it.

#6 “I was watching a news story in the spring of 1999 on television. At some point along the line, it mentioned that they had banned the sport of _________, which kind of struck a personal chord for me, because as a boy I grew up with all my cousins and friends _________ So I sat down after that news story and wrote a 25-page short story about two boys and it became this kind of a much darker, more involved tale than I had anticipated. A couple of years later, in March of 2001, I rediscovered the short story in my garage, essentially, and it kind of became the inspiration for the novel”

Both blanks are same

#7 The morning was cold and wet; then an easterly wind, and the clouds hard and high; then thunder showers, and wind shifting to every quarter. The group had apparently also been discussing the experiments by Erasmus Darwin (Charles Darwin's grandfather) with galvanism, the contraction of muscles stimulated by electricity.The writers and poets threw down the gauntlet to see who could conceive the most fantastic tale of horror. "I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous Creator of the world.”What would result, a year later, was a full-blown novel with elements from the Gothic and Romantic periods, and was seen as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and what could go wrong. It is also laced with references to John Milton's "Paradise Lost".

#8 The author said, "I've been reading books for adults my entire life. Growing up I was an avid reader—the thicker the book, the better."She also said she is a huge fan of Orson Scott Card, and "can't go through a year without re-reading" Jane Austen's books.

She also says that her writing is strongly influenced by music, and she posts playlists on her website of songs which specifically inspired her books. Bands included most often in her playlists are Muse, Blue October, My Chemical Romance, Coldplay and Linkin Park. As a Mormon, she acknowledges that her faith has influenced her work. In particular, she says that her characters "tend to think more about where they came from, and where they are going, than might be typical." She says that she does not consciously intend her novels to be Mormon-influenced, or to promote the virtues of sexual abstinence and spiritual purity, but admits that her writing is shaped by her values.

#9 ) The author noted that during his early schooling in the midst of World War I, he had drawn pictures in the margins of his school workbooks of an unnamed young man battling les Boches. He later commented that these drawings depicted a brave and adventurous character using his intelligence and ingenuity against opponents, but none of these early drawings survive.He was also influenced by the physical appearance and mannerisms of his younger brother Paul, who had a round face and a quiff hairstyle. In search of adventure, Paul later joined the army. The author later stated that in his youth, "I watched him a lot; he entertained me and fascinated me... It makes sense that took on his character, gestures, poses. He had a way of moving and a physical presence that must have inspired me without my knowing it. 

#1 Some locations and characters were inspired by the author’s childhood in Birmingham, where he first lived near Sarehole Mill, and later near Edgbaston Reservoir. There are also hints of the Black Country, which is within easy reach of north west Edgbaston. Some parts have been inspired by the Industrial Revolution in England and the Iron Age and Roman mineral workings and remains which the author saw in 1929. Other influences include his experiences in World War I and II. The entire story was finished before 1945.

Answer

Lord of The RingsJ.R.R. Tolkien

#2 The author was working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International at that time. One day she was held up for four hours in a train from Manchester to London in 1990. She wondered how she could escape. It was here that the story was first conceived.

Answer

Harry Potter seriesJ.K. Rowling

#3 The inspiration for the book, he explains, was from an incident in Los Angeles in 1949, during the period of intense censorship and blacklisting known today as McCarthyism. He and a friend were walking the streets of L.A. when a police officer stopped them and asked them what they were doing. The police officer had no reason to do so, and this angered the author.The incident was the perfect example of the paranoia and fear that overwhelmed the American society at that time.

Answer

Fahrenheit 451Ray Bradbury

#4 "I was flipping through images of reality television, there were these young people competing for a million dollars ... and I saw images of the Iraq War," the author said in a video from the publisher, Scholastic. "Two things began to sort of fuse together in a very unsettling way, and there is really the moment when I got the idea for the story."

Answer

Hunger GamesSusanne Collins

#5 Bell was a great-grandson of Benjamin Bell, a forensic surgeon. In his instruction, Joseph Bell emphasized the importance of close observation in making a diagnosis. . These skills caused him to be considered a pioneer in forensic science (forensic pathology in particular) at a time when science was not yet widely used in criminal investigations. Bell studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School and received an MD in 1859.

The author served as his clerk at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and later based the character on him. Bell was aware of this and took pride in it.

Answer

The Adventures of Sherlock HolmesSir Arthur Conan Doyle

#6 “I was watching a news story in the spring of 1999 on television. At some point along the line, it mentioned that they had banned the sport of _________, which kind of struck a personal chord for me, because as a boy I grew up with all my cousins and friends _________ So I sat down after that news story and wrote a 25-page short story about two boys and it became this kind of a much darker, more involved tale than I had anticipated. A couple of years later, in March of 2001, I rediscovered the short story in my garage, essentially, and it kind of became the inspiration for the novel”

Both blanks are same

Answer

The Kite RunnerKhaled Hosseini

#7 The morning was cold and wet; then an easterly wind, and the clouds hard and high; then thunder showers, and wind shifting to every quarter. The group had apparently also been discussing the experiments by Erasmus Darwin (Charles Darwin's grandfather) with galvanism, the contraction of muscles stimulated by electricity.The writers and poets threw down the gauntlet to see who could conceive the most fantastic tale of horror. "I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous Creator of the world.”What would result, a year later, was a full-blown novel with elements from the Gothic and Romantic periods, and was seen as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and what could go wrong. It is also laced with references to John Milton's "Paradise Lost".

Answer

FrankensteinMary Shelley

#8 The author said, "I've been reading books for adults my entire life. Growing up I was an avid reader—the thicker the book, the better."She also said she is a huge fan of Orson Scott Card, and "can't go through a year without re-reading" Jane Austen's books.

She also says that her writing is strongly influenced by music, and she posts playlists on her website of songs which specifically inspired her books. Bands included most often in her playlists are Muse, Blue October, My Chemical Romance, Coldplay and Linkin Park. As a Mormon, she acknowledges that her faith has influenced her work. In particular, she says that her characters "tend to think more about where they came from, and where they are going, than might be typical." She says that she does not consciously intend her novels to be Mormon-influenced, or to promote the virtues of sexual abstinence and spiritual purity, but admits that her writing is shaped by her values.

Answer

Twilight seriesStephenie Meyer

#9 ) The author noted that during his early schooling in the midst of World War I, he had drawn pictures in the margins of his school workbooks of an unnamed young man battling les Boches. He later commented that these drawings depicted a brave and adventurous character using his intelligence and ingenuity against opponents, but none of these early drawings survive.He was also influenced by the physical appearance and mannerisms of his younger brother Paul, who had a round face and a quiff hairstyle. In search of adventure, Paul later joined the army. The author later stated that in his youth, "I watched him a lot; he entertained me and fascinated me... It makes sense that took on his character, gestures, poses. He had a way of moving and a physical presence that must have inspired me without my knowing it. 

Answer

TintinGeorges Prosper Remi

Long Visual Connect

•There are eight slides connected to a central theme•Identify and guess the theme•Connect marks indicated on each slide•No points for identification•However, if you guess the theme, you have to explain the connection to at least two slides.

The woman on the right

+80,-40

+70,-35

+60,-30

+50,-25

+40,-20

+30,-15

+20,-10

+10,-5

Answer

They all have units named after them

The woman on the right is Helen of Troy.A Helen is the unit of beauty

Andy Warhol.A Warhol is the unit of fame.One Warhol is being famous for 15 minutes.

Carl Sagan. A Sagan is an incredibly large quantity of anything.

Kim Kardashian.A Kardashian is a unit of time, equivalent to 72 days.(She was married to Kris Humphries for 72 days)

Mickey Mouse.One Mickey per second is the smallest resolvable unit of measurement for the speed and direction of a computer mouse

Blaise Pascal.Pascal is a unit of pressure.

Nikola Tesla.Tesla is the unit of magnetic intensity

Isaac Newton

Enough said